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Accidental Marriage is a trope where two characters suddenly end up married. This can happen because they marry while drunk or under the influence of drugs or hormones, they might wake up in an Alternate Universe where they are married, Time Travel can be involved, there could be external influences (it might be a case of Forced Marriage), it could be a case of Aliens Made Them Do It and/or misunderstandings with alien cultures... Writers have found many reasons to invoke this trope.

The marriage then changes the relationship between the characters in a significant way; often it happens to characters who weren't romantically involved before. One or both characters may have had prior feelings for the other one and awkward misunderstandings may lead to a lot of pining. Sometimes the characters will have to pretend to actually be together.

A popular subtrope is "waking up married in Vegas" and dealing with the consequences - usually ending up being stuck married for a certain amount of time. This usually allows the pairing in question grow closer to the point where they want to stay married. In these cases, the characters are only in Las Vegas for a short time before moving on.

Example Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

What happened in Vegas... by Jules_InkOliver/Felicity. It's all fun and games until you wake up hung-over and married to a stranger. Five years ago Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak made a drunken mistake that could never be corrected. After years on a hellish island he comes back as a man on a mission only to find out that what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas. (Season One Rewrite) (WIP)